Enjoyment of Life

"As this world was not intended to be a state of any great satisfaction or high enjoyment, so neither was it intended to be a mere scene of unhappiness and sorrow." -Joseph Butler

According to Thesaurus.com, the word enjoyment, as a noun, is defined as having "delight in something."

Part of Speech: noun
Definition: delight in something
Synonyms: amusement, delectation, diversion, enjoying, entertainment, fruition, fun, gladness, gratification, gusto, happiness, hedonism, indulgence, joy, loving, luxury, pleasure, recreation, rejoicing, relaxation, relish, satisfaction, savor, self-indulgence, sensuality, thrill, triumph, zest
Antonyms: displeasure, dissatisfaction, misery, sorrow, unhappiness, woe

To study the word even further from the thesaurus, there are nearly five times as many synonyms for the word enjoyment as there are antonyms. If that is the case, why do we give so much power and attention to the antonyms of enjoyment?

Do you really want to live your life full of displeasure and dissatisfaction? Is every day another one full of misery, sorrow, unhappiness and woe?

Make a change and choose to enjoy life. It may require drastic change in your life, but it will be good change. Make sure that the type of enjoyment you select is healthy, smart and impacts your life and those around you positively.

As I write this, we are in a full Christmas holiday mode and it should be enjoyed. Now is as good of a time as any to let go of the hurt and pain. Now is as good of a time to start enjoying your life. Now is the time to start loving your life.

Which is by no coincidence that I found the picture above. It caught my attention from a blog post by a person named Sarah Russell. She said that "Life is made to be enjoyed, even through the hardships. Take a moment to enjoy the all of the blessings that surround you and the opportunities that are waiting for you to really see them lurking there."

I can not say that there will never be any displeasure, dissatisfaction, misery, sorrow, unhappiness, or woe in your life. I can say that the opportunity for amusement, delectation, diversion, enjoying, entertainment, fruition, fun, gladness, gratification, gusto, happiness, hedonism, indulgence, joy, loving, luxury, pleasure, recreation, rejoicing, relaxation, relish, satisfaction, savor, self-indulgence, sensuality, thrill, triumph, and zest will be there for your enjoyment if you let it.

Love life and stay inspired my friends.

To Wear Armor

Victoria and Albert Museum - London, UK

"The time to take counsel of your fears is before you make an important battle decision. That's the time to listen to every fear you can imagine! When you have collected all the facts and fears and made your decision, turn off all your fears and go ahead!" -George S. Patton

Each of us face the worry or anxiety when preparing for big events. It could be that presentation at work, meeting the in-laws, steadying oneself for a job interview. We become nervous and the butterflies in our stomach begin to float about. All the while, we are preparing to do battle with our fears. Having the worry or anxiety doesn't help any.

But the preparation must go on. We must collect all of our fears and deal with them. One-by-one we slay them as we march towards the real fight in which we will succeed. Success though is only found if we defeat the fears first.

On a recent business trip to London, UK, I had an afternoon free of any meetings. It is during these times that I like to take the opportunity to take short visits to museums or other places of interest. Near to my hotel was the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington.

It is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, that displays a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects. It was named after Prince Albert and Queen Victoria and was founded in 1852.

As I walked through, I came upon a collection of battle armor and weapons. While old and antiquated from my perspective, they were marvels of their time. These were the weapons that men took into battle. They were used to conquer fear and to fight oppression. In some cases they were used for the wrong purposes. But they were the tools used in those times.

I am not suggesting that you take up weapons to fight your fears. What I am suggesting is that we wage war daily against fears that bind us. The battle to overcome that which is keeping us from success must be dealt with. We have many different tools from which to draw from and use.

And there are plenty of resources out there you can use to figure out which tools will work for you. Some of the tips I have come across are;

1. Take time out. Step back, take a breath and relax.
2. What’s the worst that can happen? Don't make the fear larger then it really is.
3. Expose yourself to the fear. Confront it, see what it really is.
4. Welcome the worst. See number two.
5. Get real. Knowledge can have a crushing effect upon fear.
6. Don’t expect perfection. Nothing is perfect and neither is the fear.
7. Visualise. See number one.
8. Talk about it. Discuss the fear with others.
9. Go back to basics. A good sleep, good meal and a walk are often the best cures.
10. Reward yourself. When you slay one dragon, bask in the victory and treat yourself before moving onto the next fire-breathing fear.

Remember that the fear is inside of us, not some army that needs to be defeated. It is not some monster of epic proportion awaiting us on the other side of the door. No, fear is a menacing thing that resides inside of us.

Gird yourself for battle in order to defeat the fear inside of you. Become the victor over those fears and lay them wasted along the roadside. There will be success in the end.

Stay inspired my friends.

Love is Five

"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." -1 Corinthians 13:13

According to Wikipedia, love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment.

[1] In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. Love is central to many religions, as in the Christian phrase, "God is love" or Agape in the Canonical gospels.

[2] Love may also be described as actions towards others (or oneself) based on compassion, or as actions towards others based on affection.

[3] In English, love refers to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes, ranging from pleasure ("I loved that meal") to interpersonal attraction ("I love my partner").

[4] "Love" may refer specifically to the passionate desire and intimacy of romantic love, to the sexual love of eros, to the emotional closeness of familial love, or the platonic love that defines friendship, to the profound oneness or devotion of religious love.

So here we have a wide and divergent use and meaning of the word love. When you put this into the context of every day human life, the complexity can only grow. We search for it, we try to understand it, we try to capture what love is in our life.

In a new book set to come out soon, the complex nature of what love is gets explained in simple to understand terms. The book "Love Is" will explain to you what love is in four parts. It will help you find meaning to love in your life and how powerful love is in your life.

Love is ...

Love Is Four

"The ultimate lesson all of us have to learn is unconditional love, which includes not only others but ourselves as well." -Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

Unconditional love is a term that means to love someone regardless of one's actions or beliefs. It is a concept comparable to true love, a term which is more frequently used to describe love between lovers. By contrast, unconditional love is frequently used to describe love between family members, comrades in arms and between others in highly committed relationships.

Unconditional love also begins with understanding God's love for us and loving ourselves. In understanding that kind of love, we allow the feeling to generate within us and then we can share it to everyone and everything around us. That which we send out, returns to us in greater measure.

Love is not something to hold only inside, hidden away and saved for a rainy day. Love is meant to be given unconditionally, which in turn makes room for more love to fill our lives. Love is ...